SSG Landers remain top of the league

Home > Sports > Baseball

SSG Landers remain top of the league

Published: 02 May. 2022, 16:59 Updated: 02 May. 2022, 17:07

Jang Ji-hoon of the SSG Landers pitches agianst the Doosan Bears at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Sunday. [NEWS1]

The SSG Landers remain top of the league for the fifth straight week since the start of the season, after beating the Doosan Bears 2-1 in the weekend series.

After beating the Bears 8-7 in extra innings on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday, the Landers were completely shut out 9-0 in the last match at home on Sunday. If the Landers had won, Sunday's match would have marked their 20th victory. However, that record will have to wait for another day.

Despite the setback, the Landers dominance continues. The last three series combined mean that the Landers have picked up five of their six losses this season within the last two weeks, suggesting that the Incheon club is starting to lose some of the momentum they started the season with. But its unlikely that it will matter as they are still 3.5 points clear at the top of the KBO.

Despite losing the weekend series, the Doosan Bears step up from fifth place to fourth position after a 2-1 series victory over the NC Dinos during the week. Doosan beat NC 8-4 on April 26, then beat NC 9-5 on April 27 but lost 9-5 on April 28.

The LG Twins, who were in second place last week, have fallen down to fifth with the Lotte Giants stepping up to second place after beating LG 3-0 over the weekend series. Lotte beat LG 9-4 on Friday, 3-1 on Saturday and 4-0 on Sunday.

The Kiwoom Heroes took a 2-1 series victory over the KT Wiz, moving up to third place from last week's fifth position. After conceding the first match 6-4 on Friday, the Heroes cut KT's winning streak to three matches on Saturday, beating KT 4-1. Kiwoom beat KT 9-3 on Sunday to take the weekend series.

Samsung swept the weekend series 3-0 against the Kia Tigers, beating Kia 4-3 on Friday, then 5-4 on Saturday and 6-3 on Sunday to move up to seventh position. Samsung was in eighth place last week.

The Dinos stay at the bottom of the table after the Hanwha Eagles beat NC 2-1 in the weekend series. The Dinos are now 11.5 games behind the Landers.

The Jamsil derby, between stadium partners LG and the Doosan Bears, is always one of the most highly anticipated match ups of the KBO season, but often there is little more on the line than bragging rights.

The stakes are higher this week, however, as the Twins and Bears are also fighting over fourth place.

Hanwha face the Landers, Lotte face KT, NC face the Lions, the Bears face the Twins and the Heroes face the Tigers during the midweek series starting Tuesday.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]